In conclusion, I feel now that I have spoken long enough for any lecture, though I have not by any means exhausted the subject of communication of either past or present; but I should feel grieved if I exhausted your patience.  All things, as we well know, must have an end, except that life to which we are looking forward and striving to gain, where we shall cease from our labours and be at rest.  We have been endued by our Maker with thought and mind, talents to be used for our benefit, and not wrapped up in a napkin till our Lord’s return, but to be placed out so as to bring in either the five or the ten talents.  And, as you all know, we are answerable for the manner in which we employ them.  May the result prove that we have used them aright.

The progress of means of communication of mind and body have been gradual but steady, and I think may be represented by human life from its childhood to manhood, as beautifully set forth in the 13th chapter of 1st Corinthians 11th verse, where it is said, “When I was a child, I spake as a child; I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things.”  Is not this very much in keeping with our growth in communication?  At first it was small, and we were content to hear of what others were engaged in without regard to time, as one day earlier or later was of little consequence.  But now we are not children, but are become men in our interests and thirst for communication with each other.  What should we say if we found the Express, as was written on the boy’s post-bag, busily engaged in a game of bowls on the road, regardless of the loss of time or money thereby occasioned?  I think we should be inclined to write to the papers.

The results of communication are manifold, and day by day they are brought before us in a manner which shows the untiring wish of man for improvement both in social and commercial interests.  These results are strikingly shown in the various subjects I have endeavoured to bring before you.  Each and all of them are subjects for thought.  What should we now be without, I may say, any one of them?

A well-regulated mind is the most desirable of all acquirements, and I know no better means of gaining this than by meetings of such institutions as this.  Here you have intercourse with your friends, and you can gain from one another by friendly intercourse stores of knowledge, that to search for as individuals would take away much more time than you could by any means devote, and at the same time attend to the business of your calling.  Here you have the means of amusement as well as of gaining sound information, and I trust no one here will ever have cause to regret the day when he came to associate with his friends, and hear what others could communicate, for “in the multitude of counsellors there is wisdom.”

THE STEAM-ENGINE.